JPS61209167A - Wire dot line printer print control circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the improvement of a printing control circuit for a wire dot line printer, and particularly relates to a wire dot line printer having a plurality of hammer units each having a plurality of diagonally arranged wire pin groups. The present invention relates to a print control circuit for a dot line printer.

[Conventional technology]

Since the resolution of conventional wire dot line printers was low, the pins of the hammer unit were arranged in vertical rows or in a staggered arrangement in two vertical rows. With such a pin arrangement, a character generator that outputs all bits of character data in the vertical direction simultaneously can be used, and the character generator needs to be accessed once or twice to obtain print data for one hammer unit. It only takes a degree.

However, in order to realize a high-speed, high-resolution wire dot line printer, it is necessary to increase the number of hammer units and reduce the vertical pin spacing. In the conventional bin arrangement, it is necessary to arrange the coil assemblies including the pins radially, and as a result, the shape of the hammer unit becomes large, the number of hammer units cannot be increased, and problems remain in terms of speeding up.

Therefore, by arranging two coil assemblies containing pins one above the other in a multiple assembly structure, it is possible to create a small hammer unit with the required number of pins arranged diagonally. One possibility is to increase the density.

FIGS. 2(a), 2(b), and 2(c) show examples of bin arrangements aimed at increasing the dot density in the vertical direction. In the figure, 21 is a pin, 31.32.33. . . . are first . Second. Third.・・・
・Indicates the unit.

Figure (a) shows an example in which a plurality of pins 21 are arranged diagonally in one row, Figure (b) shows an example in which pins 21 are arranged in two diagonal rows, and Figure (C) shows an example in which pins 21 are arranged in two rows. This is an example of arranging them diagonally at intervals. These are appropriately selected depending on the dot density, the size of the hammer unit for driving the pins, etc. Although not shown, the pins can be arranged in one or two vertical rows.
Of course, an arrangement in columns is also possible.

Each unit 31.32.33, . ...Prints the range.

However, when the pins 21 are arranged diagonally in this way, it is not possible to output all bits of character data in the vertical direction at the same time, and therefore the conventional print control circuit cannot be used as is. Therefore, there has not been a wire dot line printer using a hammer bank in which the pins 21 are arranged diagonally in this way.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Therefore, there has been a strong demand for a printing control means for actually using a compact hammer unit having a large number of diagonally arranged pins as described above and capable of high-density printing.

[Means for solving problems]

The object of the present invention is to provide a wire dot line printer using a plurality of hammer units in which the vertical dot density is increased by arranging the above-mentioned many pins diagonally, for example.
An object of the present invention is to provide a flexible printing control circuit with a simple configuration.

This purpose is achieved in the present invention in a circuit that controls the printing operation of a wire dot line printer equipped with a plurality of diagonally arranged wire pins. The printing data extraction information for extracting the dots to be printed from the dot pattern of the character is given from a conversion means such as a ROM corresponding to each wire pin, and the extracted printing data is temporarily stored in a register.
This is achieved by transferring the print data in the register to the driver circuit after preparing the print data for driving the wire pins at one time in the register, and then activating the driver circuit to print.

[Effect]

Using the current position of the hammer bank, the wire pin number, and the hammer unit number to which it belongs as keys, information indicating the position of the character to which the dot corresponding to each wire pin belongs and information indicating the position of the above dot within that character were written in advance. A conversion means is provided, and the counting means outputs the above key information and converts it into the above position information regarding each wire pin, reads the code of the character stored in the line buffer from the character position information, and converts this character code and the above character. Information on the positions of dots in the pattern can be given to a character generator to read out printed information corresponding to the dots. This operation is performed for all wire pins by activating the counting means, and the obtained print information is stored in a register corresponding to the wire pins. After the print information for all wire pins is prepared, the desired value is obtained by driving the hammer driver according to this information. High-density printing is possible.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of the above embodiment.

The wire dot line printer receives character codes of characters to be printed from an external device 1 such as a host computer, and sequentially stores them in a character code buffer 2. The character code buffer 2 is sometimes called a line buffer, and usually has a storage capacity of more than one line of character codes.

Pulse generator (PG) (clock generation means) 3
receives a print cycle control clock 4 that controls the print timing, and in synchronization with the print data extraction cycle control clock 5 that defines the cycle for extracting print data corresponding to each wire pin, a counter [counting means] Output to 6.

The counter 6 counts the pulse train of the print data extraction period control clock 5 and outputs a counted value.

The count output of the counter 6 indicates the number of the wire pin from which print data is to be extracted. The counter 6 is, for example, a β-bit counter 7, an m-bit counter 8, .
It may be considered that the counter 6 is composed of an n-bit counter 9, and a (/+m+n)-bit signal is output from the counter 6. Of this signal, the lower β-bit component is a pin number designation component 10, which indicates the wire pin number in the hammer unit, and the middle component of m bits is a hammer unit designation component 11, which indicates the hammer unit number, n The upper bit component is a position designation component 12 that designates the position of the hammer bank, and indicates the position of the hammer bank at the next printing timing.

The count value output of the counter 6 is stored as an address in the first memory [first conversion means] 13. The second memory (second conversion means) 14 is provided with the second memory (second conversion means). The first memory 13 is for converting the pin number output from the counter 6 into the digit number (position) in the print line of the character to which the dot corresponding to the wire pin belongs; Address information for specifying the literary code corresponding to the character stored in the position of the above-mentioned digit number in the character code buffer 2 is written in advance in the order of the output pin numbers of 6.

The second memory 14 is for converting the pin number output from the counter 6 into the position in the character pattern to which the dot corresponding to that wire pin belongs, and in reality, the upper P bits specify the line of the character pattern. Dot position designation information for specifying a string of character patterns using the lower Q bits is written in advance in the order of pin numbers corresponding to the pin numbers output by the counter 6.

The character generator (CG) 15 has a variety of characters registered in dot patterns, and generates a dot pattern in a specified line or column of a specified character based on the input character code and row or column specification information. This is what is output. For convenience, it is assumed here that the CG 15 receives line designation information and outputs a - line dot pattern.

When a predetermined amount of character codes are stored in the character code buffer 2, the printer starts a printing operation.

It is assumed that the counter 6 has been initialized at this time, and the output of the counter at this time indicates the first bin number.

The first memory 13 receives the output of the counter 6 and outputs to the character code buffer 2 address information specifying the character position to which the dot corresponding to the first wire bin belongs. The character code buffer 2 outputs the character code of the specified address to the CG 15 according to the address information input from the first memory 13.

CG15 is the character code from character code buffer 2,
According to the line designation information (upper l bits) output from the second memory 14, the dot pattern of the specified line of the specified character is output to the selection circuit 16. Selection circuit 1
6 extracts predetermined 1-bit print data from the one-row dot pattern output from the CG 15 in accordance with the column designation information (lower Q bits) output from the second memory 14. The extracted 1-bit print data is stored in register 1.
It is stored in the position corresponding to the bin number 7.

This completes the extraction of the print data of the dot number indicated by the counter 6. After this, a pulse is emitted from PG3, and the 2 bits (indicating the bin number of the hammer unit) of the lower component 7 of the counter 6 are updated (the m bits of the middle component 8 and the n bits of the upper component 9 are not updated). .

Since the counter 6 has been updated, the first memory 13 and the second
The memory 14 stores new designation information in character code buffers 2 and 2, respectively. CG15. It is output to the selection circuit 16, and in the same manner as above, a predetermined 1-bit print data is taken out and stored in a predetermined position in the register 17 (a different position from the position where the print data was previously stored).

Thereafter, the l bit of the lower component 7 of the counter 6 is updated again, and the same operation is repeated for the number of bits of one hammer unit that drive the wire bin at one time, and the print data for this number of bits is stored in the register 17. When the print data for the number of bins driven by one hammer unit at a time is prepared in the register 17, this print data is transferred to a predetermined data buffer 19 of the hammer driver 18.

Extraction of print data for one hammer unit is completed through the operations so far.

Thereafter, the PG3 emits a pulse again, and the l bits of the lower component 7 of the counter 6 are initialized, and at the same time, the m bits of the middle component 8 are updated (the n bits of the upper component 9 do not change). As a result, extraction of the print data of the hammer unit indicated by the m bits of the middle component 8 starts, and by the same operation as described above, the print data corresponding to this hammer unit is transferred to the predetermined data buffer 19 of the hammer driver 18. Forward. Thereafter, the m bits of the middle component 8 of the counter 6 are updated again, and print data is extracted.

By repeating this operation the same number of times as the number of hammer units, the print data of all the hammer units is stored in the data buffer of the hammer driver.

Thereafter, a printing pulse is applied from the pulse generator 3 to the drive circuit 20 of the hammer driver to perform printing. At the same time as the print pulse is applied to the drive circuit 20 of the hammer driver, the lower l bits and middle m bits of the counter are both initialized, and the upper n bits are updated and the upper n bits are initialized.
Prepare to extract print data at the hammer bank position indicated by the bit. Extraction of print data and printing are the same as described above.

In this way, printing is performed while updating the upper n bits of the counter 6 to a predetermined value, and printing of the - line is completed.

When one line of printing is finished, all bits of the counter are initialized to prepare for extraction of the next line of print data.

In this way, printing is performed one after another, and when all the characters sent from the external device have been printed, the series of printing operations is stopped, the printer enters a standby state, and new printing information (character code) is sent from the external device. ) wait for transfer.

By using at least the upper n bits of the counter of the present invention as an up/down counter, bidirectional printing becomes possible. This is because the upper n bits indicate the position of the hammer bank.

- For example, if the hammer bank is in up count mode while moving from left to right and down count mode while moving from right to left, - count mode is used to initialize the counter of the upper n bits after printing a line. It is sufficient to simply switch from up to down or from down to up, and the last value may be held without any particular manipulation of the counter value itself.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the first memory converts the value of a counter indicating the pin number from which print data is to be extracted into the character to which the dot corresponding to the wire pin belongs, and the first memory converts the character of the dot corresponding to the wire pin from the same counter value. Since print data is extracted using a second memory that converts the column and row positions in the character pattern to which it belongs, a print control circuit can be realized with simple hardware even if the print data extraction order is complicated. There is an effect.

Furthermore, even when changing the pin arrangement of the hammer unit, this can be done simply by changing the contents of the memory, so there is no need to change the hardware, and a flexible printing control circuit can be realized. Furthermore, by using the upper n bits of the counter as an up/down counter, there is an effect that bidirectional printing is possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the main parts showing the system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and Figures 2 (a), (bl, and (C)) show the pin arrangement to increase the dot density in the vertical direction. It is a diagram showing various examples. In the diagram, 1 is an external device, 2 is a character code buffer,
3 is a pulse generator, 4 is a printing cycle control clock,
5 is a print data extraction cycle control clock, 6 is a counter,
? , 8.9 are both low. Middle and upper signal components, 13 a first memory, 14 a second memory, 15 a character generator, 16 a selection circuit, 17 a register 18 hammer driver, 19 a data buffer, 20 a hammer drive circuit, 21 is a pin, 31.32.33. ...is a unit, 41.42
゜43,... is the first. Second. Third. ...indicates the printing area of the unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) While moving a hammer bank equipped with a plurality of hammer units each having a plurality of wire pins, at least one wire pin selected from the plurality of wire pins is driven to print on the printing target surface. In a circuit that controls the printing operation of a wire dot line printer that performs a position specifying component that counts the print data extraction cycle control clock and indicates the position of the hammer bank at the next print timing controlled by the print cycle control clock;
a counting means that sequentially outputs a count value including a pin number designation component that sequentially designates the numbers of the plurality of wire pins and a unit designation component that designates the number of the hammer unit to which the wire pins belong; and the printed information extraction means Information specifying the position on the printing target surface of a character to which a dot corresponding to the wire pin specified by the unit specification component and pin specification component belongs, at the position specified by the position specification component after receiving the count value. a character code buffer that receives the character position designation information and outputs the code of the character to be printed at the position designated by the information; and a character code buffer that receives the count value and corresponds to the wire pin. a second converting means for converting a dot into dot position designation information that designates the row and column in the character pattern to which the dot belongs; and extracting print information corresponding to each wire pin based on the dot position designation information. a printing information extraction means; a storage means for storing the extracted printing information in correspondence with each of the wire pins; and a hammer driving means for driving the plurality of wire pins to print according to the stored contents of the storage means. A print control circuit for a wire dot line printer, comprising: (2) A print control circuit for a wire dot line printer according to claim (1), wherein the counting means is an up/down counter to enable bidirectional printing.